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After languishing in regulatory limbo for months, a proposed
merger between Sprint and T-Mobile is now
off the table. And in its new future as a lone entity, Sprint
will replace CEO Dan Hesse with billionaire entrepreneur and
board member Marcelo Claure, the company confirmed this
morning.

While Masayoshi Son, chairman of SoftBank, which owns Sprint,
previously said that a merger would enable
the companies to justly compete with an existing duopoly
between AT&T and Verizon, antitrust regulators ultimately
feared the acquisition would lessen options for consumers in
an already concentrated wireless industry, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Shares of Sprint -- which has posted consecutive annual losses
since 2007 -- were down 18 percent as of 11:30 a.m. ET today.

The picture at T-Mobile, however, looks slightly brighter. In
addition to adding more than 4 million customers over the past
year, other companies reportedly have their sights set on
scooping up the self-proclaimed “Uncarrier.” These include French
telecommunications operator Iliad and Dish Network, according to
the Journal.

The latter deal would bear a striking resemblance to AT&T’s
$48.5 billion purchase of DirecTV earlier this summer.

In addition to rejiggering its prices later this year, Sprint is
hoping to reinvigorate its team -- which Son has said in the past
suffers from a “loser” mentality -- with a brand new leader.
Claure, who founded the multibillion dollar mobile distributor
Brightstar in 1997, will assume his new post on Aug. 11, Sprint
said.

“[Marcelo] has the management experience, passion and drive to
create the strongest network and offer the best products and
services in the wireless industry,” Son said in a statement.
“While we continue to believe industry consolidation will enhance
competitiveness and benefit customers, our focus moving forward
will be on making Sprint the most successful carrier.”

“While consolidating makes sense in the long-term,” Claure added,
“for now, we will focus on growing and repositioning Sprint.”